Desi80

i'm over 50% to goal.. But i've only been banded less then 9 months.. I plan on being close to 80% by my one year mark. Alot of the people here are new bandsters.

my best advice for you, would be to find a doctor who does the band and talk to him/her and see if they think you are a good candidate. The band will help you with overeating, You can only eat so much before you vomit. However there are foods (like ice cream) that will go straight through the band and you can eat and eat and eat. You have to decide if you have the willpower not to buy it and bring it into you home and if you have the willpower to only eat one small bowl if you do decide to eat something that will slide through the bad.

i used to hate milk , now i love it. Was ok on fish, now i eat tuna 3-4 times a week i hardly ever eat red meats now.

i'm pretty sure we do have one lapbander who does, but i will let her speak for herself is she wishes.

at McD's i usually get the chicken nuggets or a grilled chicken sandwich and just throw away the bun. Mexican food, usually again, chicken of some sort (i love chorri pollo) and same with italian, some chicken marsala with no Pasta. I've found something to eat at just about any resturant, it may not be the healthiest but if i'm in a bind it works. I try to keep a Protein bar in my purse, the make some pretty yummy one these days.

nope never was a problem, my Dr just said do whatever feels comfortable

also make sure you click "save changes" down at the bottom

i have no problems with tator tots, its an individual thing and can even be a daily thing. Normally i can't eat breads. My mother in law made some home made bread yesterday and i tried some....went down just fine. the band is fickle and sometimes you really have to chew.

i think we all have this fear. I know it was a fear of mine. I don't have the best advice except you will never know unless you try. Which isn't as easy as it sounds because this is a big investment not only in money. I think for me, i had to hit rock bottom, when i finally started looking into weightloss surgery. It was a choice between living or slowly dying, i chose to live, and commeted myself to do whatever it took. It has not been easy, but i'll be honest that it is not that hard once you get past the liquid diet/mushie phase.

you absolutely look different! I think we are always harder on ourselfs, but i can see the difference! You look great you should be proud!

i was patient number 20 something with my doctor, so far all is well. I think the first hundred patients they have to have a proctor(experienced surgeon) during the surgery. My doctor tried to do the fills in office, but if she can't feel your port good enough she will send you to the hospital to do it under fluro. I had mine done under fluro and it was a bad/reat experience. It was bad because she had a hell of a time hitting the port even under fluro, she always jokes that she will always remember me, because of how hard it was (seriously i had bruises all over the port area) it was great under the fluro because once she finally hit the port, she injected saline, had me do the barium swallow, and injected some etc, until the restriction looked good. I got 3cc fill, and have not had to go back to be adjusted sense then. I always tease her that the reason she gave me so much was cause she never wants to have to do a fill on me again :biggrin1:

Dani, a little tip (some disagree with this behavior so you may want to ask your doctor) but when i was on liquids, i would chew up solids and then spit them out, just to the taste in my mouth. It helped me alot. But as i said, there is some different opinions on that.

well reality and my dream world are two different things. I would LIKE to think that IF i lost my band, that i would have the willpower to exercise everyday, and have learned enough dieting skills that i wouldn't gain 100lbs. I would LIKE to think that i'm going to be so busy rock climning and other hobbies that i never thought of doing that i would be WAAY to busy with my diva social life to gain all the weight back. In reality...i just don't know:(

well i know you dont want to be asked what your eating, but it does play a factor. You can not loose weight if your eating to much junk food etc. So what are you eating and how much? next, that golfball feeling in your chest right above your stomach is where the band is. That *IS* your restiction. You want to stop eating at that point. Restriction is NOT that "i felt like i just ate thanksgiving dinner" feeling.

absolutely! Like you said there are doctors with alot of different opinions on how long the post-op liquid diet should last as well as other band related rules. What we have to decide is...is it worth it or is it not worth it? For you, you decided eating solids was worth it, i decided not. I decided that eating one cookie here some ice cream there etc was worth it, though its not recommended. Others on here, would not find it so worth while. We are just all bandsters here. None of us are probably poster children of the perfect bandster. However our imperfections are between ourselfs and our doctors.

yup my doctor says ok to soda too. Thouh she will take 5 minutes telling me thats its absolute crap. yes, yes it is, but its crap that i love. I've gotten much better about the quanity of it i drink though.

well there isn't many medical providers on this board. Maybe you will get lucky and the one of the two or three doctors that do frequent this board will be able to give you somethin more indepth.

you've been told why. The stitches, the slippage, stretching your pouch, etc. Those reasons aren't good enough for you i guess so what else should be said? If you would like we could lie and say your stomach will explode, is that scary enough? I get the feeling no matter what we say, what you really want to hear is that its ok to go against your doctors orders and cheat.

Well i am a mean mommy type. I guess it just goes with my personality and my job. I call a spade a spade. If i see you doing something "wrong" i'm gonna call you on it. I'm all about tough love. I realise different doctors say different things. What your doctor says and what my doctor says doesn't matter. What Dani's doctor wants her to do is what matters because thats the doctor that she has to deal with. Dani i'm sorry, but there is nothing we can say that will "scare" you into doing something. Either you want to do it or you don't. I know its hard, trust me, i was ready on day 3 to call my doctor and have her remove the band because i was so hungry and felt like i didn't have what it takes. I had to dig down deep and decide what was important, its not easy, nothing in life worth having is ever easy.

i don't think anyone has forgotten how hard it is. However we aren't doing anyone any favors by supporting them to do something that is not medically advised.

if you think you know better then your doctor, by all means eat solids. Just know that you have no one else to blame but yourself if something goes wrong, and the doctors and insurance has absolutely no obliation to fix you or pay to fix you because you did not follow physicians medical advice. I work in the medical field and i have seen Doctors drop patients for not listening to them. But really you have to ask yourself. If you don't have the will power to follow through with medical advice now, How are you going to manage to follow any of the bandster rules your doctor gives you? Trust me, i know how hungry you are, but its only a couple weeks. You aren't going to die (even though it feels like it at times) and you will feel better for it in the long run. I lost 11lbs in 2 weeks on the liquid diet. So which would you like 11lbs or maybe more off or a moment of food satisfaction?

It controls the emotional eating to a degree. You can still do it, but once you've had a proper fill it limits how much you can do it. If you want to crab a cookie or something because your day at worked sucked you can! The only difference as with a proper fill thats ALL you can eat is maybe one or two Cookies. The problem comes in that time between getting the band, and getting the right restriction. Its very easy to get out of control with your eating between that time.

It is very much worth it. I was banded back in August and have lost 56lbs. I've been pretty fortunate as a bandster that i can still eat the things i love (except breads) i just eat LESS of it. I can still eat chocolate chip cookies, but instead of eating 6-7 in a sitting, i eat 1 maybe 2 if i'm lucky. I still eat ice cream but i can only eat one scoop. There are certain things that my band is a little fickle with, but you get over it fairly quickly, I dont even miss bread anymore.

congrats onderland is wonderful!:clap2:

i was 25 when i had my surery. I had BCBS of VA PPO. I was approved on the first time, no problems at all. Mostly its about if your employer chooses to cover WLS in the insurance package not the insurance itself. Also each state is different what BC of VA will pay might not be the same as in another state so dont assume everyone with BCBS has the same plan as you. I had a BMI of almost 45 and a couple co-morbidities.